A style sheet is a master page layout used in document creation systems such as word processing, desktop publishing, and the Internet. The style sheet is a file that is used to store margins, tabs, fonts, headers, footers, and other layout settings for a particular category of document. When a style sheet is selected, its format settings are applied to all the documents created under it, saving the page designer or programmer from redefining the same settings over and over again for each page.
Cascading style sheets (CSS) defines a visual formatting model used for laying out, for example, extensible markup language (XML) or hypertext markup language (HTML) elements. In this model, every element is laid out using a visual “box model.” As shown in FIG. 4, a box model 400 includes a plurality of boxed elements comprising a margin 405, a border 410, a padding 415, and a content 420 that together allow the flexible layout of the boxed elements. Moreover, every edge for each boxed element in box model 400 is given a CSS property (e.g. “margin-left” or “padding-top”.) For example, using box model 400, a paragraph can be indented by giving it a left margin.
Another aspect of the visual formatting model are the CSS position schemes that define a set of positioning modes that use the offsets “top”, “right”, “bottom”, “left”, “width” and “height” to position boxed elements on a page. Using one of the positioning schemes, such as “absolute”, a boxed element can be position at the very top-left of the positioning container using “top: 0; left: 0;”, for example.
In some situations, editing box model properties is limited to manual code editing or form user interface (UI.) Thus, the conventional strategy is to directly edit the associated CSS box model properties. This often causes problems because the conventional strategy requires a manual non-visual process. For example, the conventional strategy forces designers to tediously edit the page layout in one UI and then switch to a preview mode to observe the edit's effect.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for methods and systems for providing direct style sheet editing more optimally. Furthermore, there is a need for providing direct style sheet editing using, for example, a style application toolbar.